This week has definitely been one that I really wish hadn't existed!
It all started with a big Tonic Clonic seizure in the early hours of Monday morning resulting in a huge headache, bloody mouth, aching from head to toe and a very bruised and swollen hand with an inability to move two of my fingers. Not fun. So after resting for a while longer as post-seizure exhaustion had taken over, off to accident and emergency or an x-ray it was... lovely way to spend a morning. LUCKILY though my hand wasn't broken just some "deeply bruised" tendons. By midday we were out of the hospital and as I was feeling much better so decided to walk back into town to catch a bus home instead of us paying for a taxi... (we are students so ANYTHING to save a few pennies is good!) While we were in town though we popped into a couple of shops and boom I started to feel unbelievably sick. And that was that sick sick sick.... it was horrible. I got to feel so poorly and shaking like a leaf by late afternoon that my housemate decided to take me to the emergency clinic at my local surgery. We saw the doctor, I had a temperature and they said it was probably a sickness bug and it would pass in a couple of days. After not being able to keep any food, drink or medication down and mostly sleeping through the days the bug still wasn't showing any signs of leaving. My legs felt like jelly, standing up made my balance feel all over the place and I was just so so so tired. Thursday I was meant to have lectures for most of the day but only managed about an hour before I decided to leave to go home and sleep.
No medication for days of course resulted in much more in terms of seizures. Smaller ones were rife and had another Tonic Clonic Thursday night so by Friday I decided enough was enough. After ringing my Epilepsy Specialist nurse she told me to ring my GP straight away and explain to them that I still couldn't keep any medication down. The only doctor on that afternoon was a locum and after explaining what was wrong to the receptionist the doctor rang back pretty quick. After talking to her for a while over the phone she had to go and research my medication and ring me back. As soon as she rang me back she asked me to come into the surgery straight away. There she examined me and told me she was admitting me to the hospital that evening, rang the ward, wrote me a letter to take to them and sent me straight there.
Once I got to the hospital thanks to my housemate :) one of my closest friends who I've known since I was literally a few days old and just so happens to be a med student came over from Cardiff to stay with me. I was triaged straight away with bloods taken, obs, EEG and chest x-ray. Then after a bit the doctor came to assess me and bless her tried SEVEN times to try and get a IV drip into my arms but with no success as my veins were too dehydrated and cold. She also did the usual neuro and reflex checks.
It was a looong night with my obs being taken various times, and sleeping in hospital is always hard non-surprisingly. It was just a matter of hoping for no more big seizures and waiting for time to pass the the virus to go away and for me to be able to stomach medicine. I was given a paracetamol drink to drink sip by sip which was disgusting but given the cracking headache, minor temperature and need to rehydrate was well worth the taste.
I woke up sometime during the night to find the nurse handing me some Diazepam to take (a new one for me). I was very confused and had no idea as to why this was happening until my friend and nurse explained that I had been having number a smaller seizures while asleep. I had absolutely no idea that this was happening and apart from a fuzzy head which I would have normally put down to being tired there wasn't any other particular clues.. (which does make me wonder if I often have lots of little seizures in my sleep normally..) Even after taking the Diazepam I continued to have seizures each time I fell back to sleep just with a little less frequency. Bad times.
By the time the consultant came around to do his rounds in the morning I was feeling much better. He asked me about everything that had happened, did some more little checks and decided that as long as I could keep my much smaller dose of Keppra down with some fluids and a little bit of food I could be discharged after a urine test and a promise to ring my Epilepsy nurse to discuss the events ASAP. I REALLY don't like being in hospital for any reason (who does??) and after about 18 hours I was desperate to leave!! By the time breakfast was served I nervously tried to eat and with the help of some anti sickness medicine NEVER in my life have I been so pleased to be able to eat a small piece of toast and drink a cup of water!
My lovely friend stayed with me for the whole night which I am so incredibly thankful for. Making me giggle as much as possible, distracting me from everything and just generally watching over me especially while I was seizing. **massive love to you**
Now I'm back home it's just a matter of slowly building up my food and drink intake with the help of the anti sickness tablets which are AMAZING! They make me really hyper and talkative which I think are pretty good side effects for once! I also have to start my regular anti seizure medicine from a small dose again as after my usual dose of 2000mgs of keppra and 300mgs per day of Vimpat had completely left my system, taking that amount straight away again could be toxic. It will take a few weeks to get back up to full dose again but patience is everything with Epilepsy!
So an eventful week and to say I'm tired is an understatement but thanks to my friends and the medics I'm feeling SO much better :D The queasiness is easing slowly but surely and the ability to eat properly again is creeping back :D Bring on the food!!
